The playground called “the park”: three diamonds once,
Then, only one providing fans a cage.
Worn down to khaki talc, the other two
Survived in only faintly rhomboid traces.
On these, the five of us swung for the fences.
(There would have been no point to stolen bases,
Sacrifices, suicides, or bunts.
Besides, those were too hard for kids our age.)
A fly to right was out, force-outs were few,
And when it didn’t rain, the skies were blue.
What girls we knew had not yet had their menses.
Well, Bobby’s sister Betty—maybe—who
Could homer farther than you ever saw,
And rounding third, elicited pure awe.
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